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Our Valentine – 5 Years of Noke

On February 14th, 2014, we adopted Sarah (later to become Noke) from the Humane Society of Boulder Valley, in Boulder, Colorado. On January 7th, 2014, Sarah and her sister Sandra were turned in as strays, by a citizen, to the Gallup McKinley County Humane Society in Gallup, New Mexico. They estimated her birthday to be November 8th, 2013. She was transferred from Gallup to Boulder, in order to help her find a positive outcome. One January 25th, when they moved her to the clinic to be spayed, she was lethargic and has a 103.8 degree fever. She also had a hot spot lesion on her left side that she was chewing at. Her skin scrape was negative, but her parvo test was positive. Her shelter notes were sad… she chewed through her IV over night and spilled her food and water everywhere. She had alopecia on both inner thighs and her left shoulder… it was EXTREMELY itchy. Even though the deep skin scrape came back negative for mites, the vet started treating her for sarcoptic mange. 

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Happy Birthday, Noke!

First and foremost, you’ve probably noticed a lack of content lately! You’d think that the lead up to the holiday season would be packed with important content, and that would be our intention, but we’ve been extremely busy and haven’t had the opportunity to write. Well, Fit has been writing two books, actually. She is going through her fourth revision of her first major novel, but also taking part in a November writing program (NaNoWriMo) where you write a novel within the month. Hungry is taking his fourth course in his program, on his way to his Masters degree. Both of us are working our full-time jobs as well, and taking care of the babies.

Speaking of which, Noke turned five years old on Thursday, November 8th. Originally adopted on Valentine’s Day in 2014, we’ve always celebrated her birthday based on the date of birth that the shelter estimated. We generally don’t invite a bunch of people over for a party, or bring her to play Laser Tag, but we do a little bit more than your average family. It doesn’t take much to get her excited, and you could certainly make a point that this is more about giving us a good time than her. Either way, she really enjoys it and has a major sensory overload when we celebrate. 

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A Picnic and a Hike

Every month, Hungry and I have goals. Twenty-five to be exact. They are split into five categories: Alana, Chris, Hungry & Fit, Home, Fun. Each have five goals within them. One of our fun goals this month was to do a picnic and hike at Will Rogers with Noke.

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Hungry Got a New Job

Hungry & Fit started as a personal blog before it transformed into a food & fitness blog. We used it to document our cross-country trip to find a new life in a place we’d never been, but we’ve actually kept you in the dark about a lot of our own personal projects. Recently, Hungry started a new job, however, working for one of the most impactful animal welfare organizations in the world.

If you’ve been following him on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve probably noticed a whole lot of pictures of new dogs. These are shelter dogs from the adoption center where he works. Before, he was a manager for a feral kitten rescue, but now Hungry has the opportunity to work with both dogs and cats, of all ages, breeds and conditions. We’re talking about a lot of unique personalities here.

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Why I Train and How I Train

This is going to be a very bloggy blog… if that makes any sense. Sorry for the few days off; it has been a crazier-than-normal past week or so.

As you can see from the picture below, last week, I was “forced” into action when we were taking Noke for her morning walk. A genius couple decided to “tie” their 120+ lb Great Pyrenees to a ~15lb garden table that wasn’t anchored to anything, while they went inside together to get their morning coffee. The dog must’ve planned on greeting Noke, even though we tried to avoid her, and everything went downhill quickly from there. When the table hit the ground, Daisy (the huge white cloud of fur) ran and, thinking that the table was chasing her, wouldn’t stop. The male owner ran outside the coffee shop, freaked out and started chasing her.

Please consider that this is happening on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood (Los Angeles, California) so the chance that Daisy ran into the street and got hit (by a car) was extremely high. They had a 3-5 second head start before Fit gave me that look and told me I had to help. With my torn calf and handful of other injuries (I’ve only been doing PT and rehab exercises the past three months) I chased after Daisy and the table she was pulling down the sidewalk. It took about two seconds to pass her owner and caught up to her a few seconds after she turned onto a side street that leads up to the Hollywood Hills… phew! Unfortunately, the table provided a barrier between us and when I reached to grab her, I fell THROUGH THE TABLE and onto the concrete. 

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Top Products of 2016

2016 was yet another year full of change and innovation. While there weren’t any revolutionary releases like the iPhone, we did see some crazy new ideas become popular. After buying hundreds of new products and reviewing many of those, we came up with a list of our three favorite products each of the year 2016, and put those together. See the list below:

1. Fresh Sugar (Rose)Lip Care –  Fit struggles with finding a product that actually keeps her lips moisturized and feeling healthy. She’s tried almost everything under the sun and while some products may feel good for a few minutes, she ends up feeling dry-lipped and chapped. Fresh Sugar (recommended by her wedding make-up artist) keeps her lips feeling moisturized and healthy for a few hours! It also gives her lip just a shade of color (though there are some without any color). It may be a little on the expensive side, but it actually works. It also has sunscreen in it! I’m not one to normally buy top-of-the-line beauty products, but this one helps me feel healthy throughout the day. 

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Don’t Text While You Walk Your Dog

We live in a very dog-friendly neighborhood. I can’t go for a walk without seeing another dog. I love this! I like dogs and I like people who like dogs. However, it really peeves me off when I am walking Noke and then I see someone stumbling along head absolutely glued downwards to their phone. I start wondering to myself why they have a dog in the first place if they don’t want to actually spend real time with it. Sure, maybe it’s an emergency and they really have to contact that person then and there. But usually–let’s face it–it isn’t. I bet your walks aren’t more than an hour long, maybe not more than 30 minutes either. You can spare that time to really be with them.

As soon as I see someone on their phone walking their dog, I immediately take Noke to the other side of the street and avoid that person. They have no sense of what their dog is doing, feeling, or intending because they are in some Facebook post. I can’t trust the human to handle their dog correctly, and thus I don’t want Noke anywhere near them. It’s not just the right thing to do, but you can also benefit from just being with your dog:

Noke after a rainy walk

Noke after a rainy walk

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